Ulric
Torn between Ulric and another name? Compare them side by side →
Meaning
from "wolf" + "ruler" (Wulfric), or "heritage" + "ruler" (Ulrich)
The story
Ulric has two paths through name history. In the English of the Middle Ages, Ulric was a form of Wulfric, an Old English name made from wulf, "wolf", and ric, "ruler" or "king". That is where the meaning "wolf ruler" comes from. In modern use, Ulric is usually a variant of Ulrich. That name comes from the Old German Odalric, combining uodil, "heritage", with rih, "ruler" or "king".
A modern bearer was the psychologist Ulric Neisser. His book Cognitive Psychology, published in 1967, helped bring together the study of how people perceive, pay attention, solve problems and remember. At Emory University, he compared students' accounts recorded just after the space shuttle Challenger disaster with their recollections later on. Many accounts had changed substantially. The comparison showed how memory can reshape an experience over time.
How popular is Ulric around the world?
In the United States, 42 babies were named Ulric between 2020 and 2025. In South Australia, 1 boy was registered as Ulric in 2017.
Ulric is on the official records of the United States, South Australia, Spain and Brazil.
United States
1 in 520,000
In the United States, 42 babies were named Ulric between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Ulric has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
South Australia
1 in 18,0002017
In South Australia, 1 boy was registered as Ulric in 2017.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Spain
1 in 2.1M
In Spain, 21 residents are named Ulric, ranked 29,808th among men, with a mean age of 13.7 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Brazil
At the 2022 census, 29 people in Brazil were named Ulric, ranked 96,655th, with a median age of 12.
People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Canada
last on record 2023
Ulric is not on the 2024 record for Canada, where names under 5 in a year are excluded at source.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
France
last on record 2024
Ulric is not on the 2025 record for France, where spellings under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
share of that year’s births on record
Births in France by year of birth, from INSEE’s fichier des prénoms (1900–2025; Mayotte from 2012); exact spellings count separately (Léo and Leo are different names), any spelling under 3 in a year and sex is withheld at source, every count is rounded to the nearest 5 at source, and nametree keeps the spellings that reached 20 in some year. Shares divide by INSEE’s count of births in France from 1957, and before that by the file’s own total for the year; INSEE says the file is not complete before 1946. Source: Insee, fichier des prénoms (last updated 2026-07-16)
Not on the record in Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Ulric deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Ulric truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Ulric fits with your family’s names and surname.
Does Ulric fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Ulric to your family’s tree →